UNIDO Workshop — Using Design Thinking to enhance green skills in VET

For anyone interested learning how green skills can be incorporated into training and education, a new short video is a valuable first step.

It condenses a four-hour workshop that was part of a major international forum that saw WorldSkills partner with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

The three-day event, organized by UNIDO’s Learning and Knowledge Development Facility (LKDF) brought together TVET experts, training specialist and policy experts to see how green skills can be incorporated into current training systems.

The final-day workshop used the framework of design thinking, a problem-solving process that seeks to identify issues and find solutions by focusing on the people and communities it is intended to benefit.

Its objective was to understand the challenges of making TVET greener, and then find practical ways as to how this could be implemented.

The design thinking workshop is now summarized as a 17-minute YouTube video that explains the methodology of design thinking and how it could be applied to green skills and education.

As the private sector develops cleaner and greener ways for every economic activity from agriculture to transport, it will need a properly trained workforce.

In essence, the challenge for education is ensuring that young people are being trained now for the jobs of the future, and make sure there is no mismatch between the skills that will be demanded by the private sector and those taught by the TVET sector.